Hartford Financial Services

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Over 100% increase in automobile insurance

Posted by Kota on 06/11/2010

Being long time members of AARP, my wife and I were pleased to have the opportunity to join The Hartford and get the advertised cost reduction on our car and newly purchased home. My wife and I are the only drivers and each of us have driven for nearly sixty years without a traffic violation, not even a parking, speeding, or a stop sign violation. We have never filed a claim in our fifty-two years of marriage. On January 8,2010, on a foggy, rainy night around 9:30, I was leaving the Safeway parking lot. After stopping and making sure the way was clear, I entered the three lane street, turned right, and was crossing over to get in the left lane for a "U" turn about about 100 yards away. Suddenly, a car sped by and clipped my left front bumper just as I was entering my turn lane. I saw nothing coming, so I can only assume the car had made a "U" turn an entered the left lane after I had checked to make sure the way was clear. I stopped and talked to the girl who was driving her grandma's car, gave her my insurance info, and got the info on her grandma, s car. Police were not notified since there was no injuries, and damages were so slight. In fact, my car has such minimal scratches that I had to point them out to my wife when I got home. My car still has the scratches, and practically unnoticeable. I contacted AARP- The Hartford, gave them all the info, and notified the state insurance office. The representative who I talked to at Hartford told me that he would be in touch if anything was made out of the incident. So, it was all but forgotten until June 9th when we received a notice from Hartford showing that our auto insurance policy had increased by more than 100 percent. Since hearing nothing for over five months, the new rate was shocking. I immediately contacted Hartford and was told that the increase was due to the January accident. The person who I talked to said that Hartford had paid $10,000 to repair the other car. Remember, we heard nothing for over five months. I'm still trying to figure how the other car could require $10,000 in repairs while my car requires nothing. Leads me to only one conclusion - that is, someone padded the bill, big time. Tomorrow, Hartford will be notified to cancel our car and home insurance, because we have purchased our insurance with another company. Oh, by the way, we were told that the first accident would be forgiven.

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Hartford Insurance Claim

Posted by 2199frob on 07/19/2008

I, too, have extremely disappointed with the service received from Hartford after a car accident. The claims handler was rude and treated my phone call as a complete inconvenience. A week later my car was still in the tow yard and no one had looked at it. I called again and talked with a woman named Josie Medina who was outstanding. She listened and truly cared. She helped me set up a rental car and gave me the number of the claim handler's supervisor. But the supervisor did nothing more than apologize and made promises that she didn't follow through on until I started calling every day.

Finally my car was picked up and taken to Denver which is 5 hours away. A week later an adjuster called and said the car could be fixed, not totaled as the computer had designated. He agreed to have the car brought back to my hometown to be fixed. His boss called later and said they didn't want to bring the car back but would have it fixed in Denver. I reminded him that according to my policy it is my choice. He unhappily agreed to have the car hauled back. An hour later he called again and offered to buy me out. Thankfully I got the offer in writing via fax.

Two weeks later the person who was to cut the check called, only the price he quoted was two thousand less than the offer. He all but called me a liar when I told him the real offer, until I told him I would be happy to fax him the quote that had been faxed to me in writing.

It took over a month and numerous phone calls to poorly trained, uncaring "customer service" people before the claim was settled.

As a 54 year old Human Resources professional, I deal with stressful issues all day long but have to say that by the time my claim was settled, I was pretty damned fed up!

But it didn't end there. When I purchased a new vehicle, I was told that the wrecked car was still on the policy, and that I was to have called to have it removed. The claims handler does not do that. As per my call, the premium for the wrecked car would be backdated and deleted.

But lo and behold, I get the endorsement and the wrecked car is still on the policy and I am being billed for coverage. I call again and am assured it will be taken care of, and that I will be refunded the two months premium I'd already paid on the wrecked car. Then another bill, the car is still on it. No mention of a refund. All three premium amounts have been different, the one over the phone, the first endorsement bill, and then the next. And each one higher than the previous.

Enough I say, cancel the policy and go with a certified agent here in town.

I got a letter in the mail today from Hartford. Yes, they are charging me a 10% cancellation fee. Well worth every penny to be done with such an incompetent organization.

Bottom line, stay away from insurance companies that only offer 800 number service. With any claim, write down who you talk to and when, and get whatever you can in writing.

As for AARP, as long as they endorse a company that writes policies without the resources to back them up, I will not belong to that organization. Thankfully I was young and savvy enough to jump through all the hoops and FINALLY get my money. Thankfully this did not happen to my mother. I can only imagine how hard it would have been for her.

Wake up AARP, do a complete audit of what is really going on with the company that you are endorsing.

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Dishonest and unfair

Posted by ccqmrp on 03/30/2007

I was in a car accident in October 2006. An old lady ran a stop sign and I hit her at the intersection (I did not have to stop). At first they said that I was 15% liable because I should have seen her coming. I argued that down to 5% based on the layout of the intersection (cars parked along the road, house makes side streets not visible until you are in front of them). On principle I would have argued it lower, but I wanted to get it over with. After the accident, when I called the insurance company they stated that they would not agree to pay for a rental car until liability was established. I explained that the vehicle that was damaged was our only vehicle for a family of five, and that we needed that to get to work, the children to school, etc. The representative stated that once liability was established that the car rental would go retro. I agreed that I would put the rental on my credit card and then seek compensation from them with the settlement once liability was established (there was no doubt in my mind that liability would be on their insured). To make a long story short, when it came time to pay for the rental car, they stated that they would not pay for the rental car until liability was established, and that it would go retro (from that day that we were having the conversation back to the day that liability was established). I explained that was not what this exact same representative had told me, and that that was not retroactive. I explained to her that the fact that liability hadn't been established at that point did not make them any less liable in the situation, but she still said they could only pay after liability had been established, which was more than a week after the accident (were they dragging their feet to get out of paying more???). I spoke to her supervisor and expained the situation AGAIN, stating that we didn't have another vehicle and that I was entitled to a rental since their insured and made my van undriveable. She agreed to pay for the rental back to the day of the accident. Then she argued about the towing and storage. I told her that I couldn't have parked my car at my home because of city ordinances regarding inoperable vehicles, and the two body shops that I had called (the two that I would actually let work on my van in the area) said that if they were not contracted for the work that they charged storage, which was, in fact, more expensive than the storage charged by the towing company. I explaned this, and she still refused to pay for storage beyond the three day window from when they sent the letter. I didn't know if the van was totaled, which is why I didn't have it taken to the body shop.

Anyway, getting ANYTHING from them was a nightmare, and in most cases I just settled because I was tired of dealing with it. Now I have medical bills going to collections because they agreed to pay medial bills for the 30 days after the accident, and those have not yet been paid. I've been begging the creditors not to send them to collections, but I'm guessing they've waited enough, and I suppose they're right.

I have nothing good to say about The Hartford. Nothing at all.

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Underwriters Of Hartford Insurance Does Not Make Mistakes

Posted by Judith on 07/23/2010

When we received our renewal for our insurance on our vehicles we was shocked it had double with no explanation to why it had gone up. This happened in April of this year. We live on a fixed income and this really hurt. So like a dummy we kept trying to pay it but each month it has become harder to do, with all the prices on food and utilities going up. I decided to call and ask why this was done to us, come to find out they had the wrong mileage down on our vehicles and did this. Instead of reissuing a new policy they told us we would have to continue to pay the price they had on the policy until April of 2011 and when our policy started over they would put it back at the right amount. There was no mention of paying back our money which will be over a $1000. My point is would you or anybody like to donate your money to a insurance company because of their underwriters mistake so be aware and if something is not right on your insurance policy at renewal time call right then so the lazy underwriters don't rip you of like they have us.

The reason I say this that was what we were told we should have done. This has been a hard lesson for us to learn and do not want any one else to have this done to them.

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Scam Artists and Liars

Posted by don31 on 12/26/2011

ARKANSAS -- I live in Arkansas, I went to Michigan where the frame broke. I traded for another car and Hartford canceled my Arkansas Policy and opened a Michigan policy. At a much higher rate. I told the woman I didn't live in Michigan, wasn't going to be living in Michigan. Said she would correct the mistake. I got a bill charging me $75 for "closing my account and re-instating it". The woman in accounting is such a smart alex, and Hartford doesn't make mistakes. She needs to be fired. I told her I'd move my auto and home owners to another company. She couldn't care less. I'm surprised the company doesn't care! Plus, when I added my Homeowners, they told me I'd get a discount on my auto insurance. Instead, they increased it. They lie as bad as DirecTV

I insured one of my vehicles with Hartford last year. Right from the start I had issues with them... first of all premiums were not delivered to me on several occasions causing a lot of work to try to straighten things out so they would not cancel me. They tried to cancel me one time due to non payment when they did indeed have my payment and this year I paid the entire years premium by the end of March to try to avoid any future premium problems with them and on 10-30-10 I received a check from them for $240.00 and all that it said was that it was a refund due to my insurance being cancelled on 10-04-10 which means that I was driving uninsured for 3 weeks. No letter or phone call from them explaining what their latest issue was. They simply cancelled me and sent me a partial refund 3 weeks later.

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Hartford Insurance problems through AARP

Posted by Reesorian on 02/27/2010

SOUTHINGTON, CONNECTICUT -- During a recent storm some months back a large limb approx one thousand pounds broke from a perfectly healthy tree swinging in a pendulum motion striking my glass enclosed spa and deck causing major damage. The limb broke in half over top of the structure causing it to move sideways. I called the insurance company as soon as possible and was informed to take any measures I could to minimize further damage. I immediately drained the spa and secured deck to another large tree with a come along and chains to keep it from falling over and losing the spa on the ground that was five feet down. While doing this I pulled the deck back to original spot as good as possible. The insurance company sent out a contractor to inspect the deck followed by a engineer that without a level found that deck was not level, DAAA, so there claim for not wanting to pay full amount of claim is that a deck that was built years ago is not up to code because it is not level now after being struck by a thousand pound limb sideways. I have code up grade insurance. I have contacted adjusters and there supervisors numerous times with very few responses. They then sent me a check for approx one tenth of the amount of the claim.

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AARP should change endorsement

Posted by AKRN on 02/23/2010

My husband and I are in our early 60s; he’s retired I work as a nurse. We have impeccable credit and driving records. We’ve been AARP members for a decade, using Hartford insurance for our home and several vehicles with never a claim. Last year we moved to Alaska. For several months we sought home insurance, but were told Hartford only does business through the mail. We continued paying for the house we’d sold and even took out an unnecessary renter’s policy while mailing inaccurate and contradictory quotes back and forth from Alaska. In frustration, we finally insured our new home through Allstate, but kept the renter’s policy and two cars with Hartford.

When our son graduated from college we removed his vehicle from Hartford (as required) and canceled the unnecessary renter’s insurance. We live in a small town and drive our 8-year-old vehicle less than 5000 miles a year. I was told this updated information would go into effect next October. I again tried to insure our home with Hartford and was told rather tersely that they only deal through the mail. I asked for paperwork and was sent an application for car insurance! Then I got a bill, increasing vehicle insurance to almost $1000 a year.

We are simplifying our lives and no longer need multiple vehicles. We’ve tried to consolidate our policies with Hartford, but the obstacles are daunting. Hartford is no longer the best value of older couples. Their paperwork is copious and contradictory, they are unwilling to value past client performance, and seem intent on maintaining a high flow of cash from people who no longer require extensive coverage. When I canceled the final vehicle policy I was told I would be billed 7% of the remaining new policy amount figured until October.

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Bait and switch

Posted by parrottr4 on 09/08/2010

Hartford Auto Insurance used a "Bait and switch" tactic on my premium.
With no tickets or claims they increase my premium by 25%. This is unfair and Hartford should not be endorsed by AARP. AARP should be protecting seniors against this tactic.

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THE BEST Insurance Company I've Ever Had

Posted by MrHappyGoLucky12 on 03/05/2004

INDIANA, PENNSYLVANIA -- Just wanted to recommend The Hartford insurance company to others. I have their auto insurance but they also offer home, etc. I am 19 and finding cheap car insurance is not easy. My rate from Hartford of $150 a month is very reasonable, I think, compared to Progressive's $320 a month for the EXACT same coverage. I recently had some damage to my brand new car (over $1,500) and the Hartford was so east to work with. They did all the investigating, covered the damage, and even waived my $500 deductible since it was not my fault in any way. They got me a rental car and everything. I am extremely satisfied. The staff is very pleasant, and they make me feel like a customer, not just a number.